Photos

Snow leads to Christmas chaos for European travelers

Passengers wait for their flights in Terminal 1 at Heathrow Airport in London on Dec. 20, 2010. The European continent's worst bottleneck during the recent wintry weather was at Heathrow, where thousands of travelers were stranded overnight Monday even as other major airports resumed normal operations after several days of weather delays.

Passengers wait for flights in the check-in area of Terminal 3 at Heathrow on Dec. 20, when severe weather caused major disruption at the United Kingdom's biggest airport for a third day.

A British Airways 747 takes off as snow begins to fall at Heathrow Airport on Dec. 20.

Passengers wait for their flight in Terminal 3 at Heathrow on Dec. 20. Snow and freezing temperatures continued to cause holiday travel chaos for road, rail and air passengers in Britain and much of Europe Monday, raising fears that many will not get home in time for Christmas.

An employee of the Finnish national airline Finnair sprays a de-icing liquid on a plane at Helsinki International Airport on Dec. 20.

Passengers wait for their flights, which were disrupted by snow and freezing temperatures, inside Terminal 4 at Heathrow on Dec. 20.

Workers defrost a plane at Heathrow on Dec. 20.

Dump trucks carry snow on the runway at Zaventem Airport near Brussels on Dec. 20.

A passenger sits on a makeshift bed after waiting overnight for a flight from Terminal 3 at Heathrow on Dec. 20.

A snow blower clears the airfield at Schoenefeld Airport in Berlin on Dec. 20.

London's Gatwick Airport is surrounded by snow on Dec. 19.

A passenger rests on the floor of Terminal 5 at Heathrow on Dec. 20.

Departure screens show cancellations at Heathrow on Dec. 20.

A passenger takes a picture of the sunrise at Terminal 5 at Heathrow on Dec. 20.

A snow plow drives past Monarch and Ryanair planes at Gatwick on Dec. 19. Ryanair canceled 84 of its flights there Sunday while Monarch Airlines Managing Director Tim Jeans called for a reassessment of the UK's transport capabilities.

A snow plow works to clear one of the runways at Edinburgh Airport in Scotland on Dec. 19.

A passenger speaks on the phone as she and other passengers face widespread snow delays at Edinburgh Airport on Dec. 19.

A Lufthansa jet is parked on the snow-covered tarmac at Hanover Airport in Germany on Dec. 19.

A Lufthansa plane is de-iced at Frankfurt Airport in Germany on Dec. 19.

Stranded passengers wait for their flights at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Dec. 18.

An Air Berlin jet is de-iced at Germany's Duesseldorf International Airport on Dec. 3. Wintry weather has disrupted flights in Europe nearly the whole month of December.

This Dec. 19 photo shows planes at Brussels Airport in Belgium.

Planes are de-iced at Paris' Orly Airport on Dec. 20.

Passengers wait for their flights at Orly Airport on Dec. 20.

Employees at the Franz Josef Strauss Airport in Munich de-ice a Lufthansa jet on Nov. 29. Winter weather has bedeviled flights in Europe since late November.

A helicopter lands next to an Air Berlin plane at Dusseldorf International Airport in Germany on Dec. 20.

The sun sets behind Dusseldorf Airport on Dec. 20. Some 50 flights were canceled at the airport and many more were delayed throughout the day.

A snow-covered plane sits at Berlin's Schoenefeld Airport on Dec. 20.

Aircraft are seen on the snow-covered tarmac at London's Heathrow Airport on Dec. 20.

Passengers crowd into Terminal 1 at Heathrow on Dec. 20.

A plane is de-iced at Orly Airport in south Paris on Dec. 20.

Passengers rest in Terminal 5 at Heathrow on Dec. 20.

A Lufthansa Boeing 747-400 lands at Frankfurt Airport on Dec. 21. Air traffic began picking up at Germany's biggest airport on Tuesday after fresh snowfall grounded early flights and caused others to be re-routed to Munich in the south.